多多直播 bioinformatics researcher鈥檚 avian natural selection study published in 鈥楽cience鈥
Contact: Vanessa Beason
STARKVILLE, Miss.鈥擳he unexpected findings of a two-nation research team including a Mississippi State scientist are featured in a recent edition of a leading academic journal.
Genetic adaptations of hummingbirds to life at high altitudes where oxygen is less available are the focus of the recent report in Science authored by Federico G. Hoffmann, in collaboration with academic partners in the U.S. and Denmark.
An assistant professor since 2011 in the university鈥檚 Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Plant Pathology, Hoffman said the team鈥檚 findings could have further implications in the field of evolutionary biology.
鈥淭his work helps us to better understand that there are multiple ways in which evolution solves problems,鈥 the specialist in bioinformatics said.
The research project was funded by grants from the U.S. National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation and Danish Council for Independent Research. The article may be read at .
Hoffman鈥檚 colleagues included Chandrasekhar Natarajan and Jay F. Storz from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Roy E. Weber and Angela Fago from Aarhus University in Denmark, and Christopher C. Witt from the University of New Mexico.
Science, a peer-reviewed publication of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, is devoted to the weekly presentation of research papers 鈥渢hat are most influential in their fields or across fields, and that will significantly advance scientific understanding.鈥 For more, visit .
Hoffman explained that the team successfully gained insight into the evolutionary process of natural selection by studying hummingbirds and several other avian species that live at both low and high altitudes. Weighing less than a nickel but having the highest metabolic rate of any vertebrate, hummingbirds have adapted over time to surviving in mountainous regions.
A Texas Tech University doctoral graduate, he said the research 鈥渟hows that we can predict how species with similar starting points are going to adapt to each environment. If the starting points are dissimilar, the process of natural selection becomes much more difficult to predict.鈥
In their study featured in the journal鈥檚 Oct. 21 issue, Hoffman describes how team members focused on hemoglobin in 28 pairs of high- and low-altitude lineages of bird species to determine how different species evolve. Hemoglobin is a red blood cell protein that carries oxygen throughout a body.
While hemoglobin from species adapted for life at high altitudes had a higher affinity for oxygen, researchers found that genetic paths leading to those hemoglobin adaptations varied. Using computational methods, they were able to travel back in time 100 million years by reconstructing protein present in the birds鈥 ancestors.
Jeffrey F.D. Dean, professor and head of the Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Entomology and Plant Pathology, said the study is significant and a 鈥減owerful piece of work that contributes to our fundamental understanding of evolutionary biology.鈥
鈥淏y focusing on a key component in adaptation 鈥 hemoglobin and its role as an oxygen carrier 鈥 Dr. Hoffmann and his colleagues were able to infer the ancestral form of this protein despite the random nature of the evolutionary process,鈥 Dean said.
Hoffmann also is part of the research team at the 多多直播-based Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station. He is an alumnus of the Universidad de la Rep霉blica Uruguay, with bachelor鈥檚 and master鈥檚 degrees completed, respectively, in biology and zoology.
His post-doctoral fellowships in molecular evolution and bioinformatics were completed at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Instituto Carlos Chagas, Brazil鈥檚 equivalent to the National Institutes of Health in the U.S.
For more on 多多直播鈥檚 biochemistry, molecular biology, entomology and plant pathology department, visit ; on MAFES, .
多多直播 is Mississippi鈥檚 leading university, available online at .